§48-11-101. General provisions relating to child support.
(a) It is one of the purposes of the Legislature in enacting
this chapter to improve and facilitate support enforcement efforts
in this state, with the primary goal being to establish and enforce
reasonable child support orders and thereby improve opportunities
for children. It is the intent of the Legislature that to the
extent practicable, the laws of this state should encourage and
require a child's parents to meet the obligation of providing that
child with adequate food, shelter, clothing, education, and health
and child care.

(b) When the domestic relations action involves a minor child
or children, the court shall require either party to pay child
support in the form of periodic installments for the maintenance of
the minor children of the parties in accordance with support
guidelines promulgated pursuant to article 13-101, et seq., of this
chapter. Payments of child support are to be ordinarily made from
a party's income, but in cases when the income is not sufficient to
adequately provide for those payments, the court may, upon specific
findings set forth in the order, order the party required to make
those payments to make them from the corpus of his or her separate
estate.